McNeely Photo Gallery

  • Shucking oysters, 1935
  • Stanley Blake McNeely
  • Baldwin County farmer bringing potato crop in horse-drawn wagon to market in 1930s
  • Mardi Gras royalty, 1907, King Thomas W. Sims and Queen Virginia Allen Lyons
  • Folly dances atop a glass of champagne on Knights of Revelry float, Beinville Square, Mobile, AL Bardi Gras Day, 1940
  • Auto Gyro, old Bates Field, early 1930s
  • Old home with ornamental iron work, Mobile, AL
  • man looking at Mobile's waterfront just before WWII
  • Sail boat on Mobile Bay, late 19th century

Stanley Blake McNeely (1896-1982), a native of Natchez, Mississippi, came to Mobile after World War I and worked for the M&O Railroad and then the Crawford Advertising Agency. In 1931 he became president of Gulf States Engraving Company and also began his career as a free-lance photographer. Using a variety of cameras – Speed Graphic, Leica, and Roliflex – McNeely photographed weddings, Mardi Gras parades and balls, sports events, and school activities. During World War II he photographed all of the ship launched for the U.S. Government at Gulf Shipbuilding in Chickasaw, Alabama. McNeely’s work appeared in numerous magazines, including Life, Vogue, Fortune, and Time. In 1946 he published a photo essay entitled Bits of Charm in Old Mobile.


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